Monetizing your influence through sponsorships is a great way to diversify your income, but you need to know how to find brand contacts in order to develop those relationships.

IE 304: How to Find Brand Contacts for Sponsorships

How do you determine what brands to pitch?

Before we try to find the brand contacts, we need to determine what brands we are actually going to pitch.

Now, in order to do that, you have to start with your positioning. 

You need to understand what problem you solve for your audience and what makes you unique.

Once you understand that you can then take a look at determining what products or services would be a good partnership for me, because my audience is going to want to know more about those products or services offered by that brand.

Now, oftentimes I tell people, look at the products and services that you are already using to create your recipes, your DIY, your crafts, etc.

What are the brands that you are already using? 

This is obviously a very authentic way in which you can create content because you are already using their products  as your materials or ingredients to create content organically.

Therefore, it would make the most sense to pitch those brands in order to create that relationship for a sponsorship. 

How do you get in contact with brands for sponsorships?

Once you have an idea of your positioning and truly can understand what it is that you solve and who you are solving it for, then it’s time to create a list of brands that you want to pitch. 

I teach that you put a spreadsheet together where you’ll actually put the name of the brand and a couple of other details, which we’ll talk about later.

First, check out their website because their website is going to be the best place to understand what the brand represents in the marketplace. 

Once you’re on the website you want to look for media, press or contact us for a potential email address.

Whereas other times you may have to click on a press release, see a new product that they’re talking about and look at the bottom of the press release to find the email address for the person.

Other times it’s not even that simple, you have to dig a little bit more.

If some brands are owned by a larger umbrella company, then they usually will have a PR company that is working for them. 

In this example I’ll put into Google looking for a new product that they have launched. 

For example, if I’m wanting to partner with Banza pasta company I’ll put in the query “new product Banza pasta”. 

In doing so, I’m anticipating that a press release will pop from a large PR company that is employed by the umbrella company to do all the PR for the smaller brand under the umbrella company.

What information is important to pay attention to when looking for brands to contact?

In your spreadsheet you want to have the name of the brand, the email address of who you are contacting and the tagline for the company from their website. 

The copy that a brand has paid for, or the tagline on their website is something they’ve paid for.

They’ve put good money into it. 

Therefore you want to use their tagline somewhere in your pitch and by adding it to your spreadsheet you’re creating an easy system for yourself. 

You also want to add to your spreadsheet a list of all the different products that they have because some of them have a wide array.

The final and fifth thing that I would want you to write down is any new products that they’re pitching right now.

A lot of times you can find this on the website, but you can also go on social media like Instagram and check to see what the most recent product was that they were really pushing because that most likely is a new product that’s being released.

This spreadsheet that I want you to keep track of all the brands that you’re pitching is just one piece of how to land contracts with brands for sponsorships.

You need to understand when it comes to pitching that it’s a process. 

It’s not something you’re going to send an email and immediately you’re going to end up with a deal.

You’re going to need to have a follow up process. 

If you’re ready to take your pitching to the next level with templates and swipe copy to get you started then check out Pitch It for 50% off.  

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